Ginger Progress

I’m kinda surprised at how much progress Ginger has made. We picked her up last Tuesday and released her into the upstairs bedroom with food, water, litter box and lots of hiding places. 

Goofy face

Wednesday we saw fleeting, hissing glimpses of her under a bed and in the closet where she’d forced the door open. (She’s very good at opening cabinet and room doors…) She was willing to eat a Churu while I was in the room so that felt like progress. (Churu = tubes of yogurt-textured treats that are like cat crack 😜)

Thursday she was still growling but was out of the closet, 

 Sniffing around Coco’s carrier while Coco checks out Ginger’s downstairs 

exploring, eating and relaxing on the cat tree from her old home. 

Friday I about fell over in surprise - ⬆️ she greeted me with hisses and growls, but also head butted me, demanding scratches. Gotta admit the growls make me (and Jackie) nervous but she’s never tried to bite or swipe at us with her claws. 

I’ve been spending a couple of hours with her twice a day, laying on the bed and letting her set the pace. By bedtime Friday, she had been up on the bed with me demanding attention,

 Jac is on the right, cat toy in hand

let Jac play with her (at a distance), and went to sleep pressed against me like we had always been BFF’s.

Friday Pop came up to visit… she loved him! No growls, just demands for pets. 

She also let Jac sit on the bed… 

then played with her… 

and demanded scratches and attention. Jac is thrilled!

We tried leaving the bedroom door open so Ginger could explore but she panicked and hid in the closet again. 

 Curious Coco

Tomorrow we’re putting a temporary gate at the top of the stairs so Ginger can explore and she and Coco can start to get acquainted. Crossing fingers this goes smoothly…..

One More Crossed Off

We’re getting towards the bottom of Jac’s must-do list and the end of her vacation. I asked her - only half joking - if she wanted to stay another month. “No, I miss my dog too much.” Mom, dad and sissy are way back behind all her 4-footed pals. 😂

 Queen of the Ball

Thursday was the jump up place (I can never remember the name… Sky Zone.) We timed it well, arriving about 11:30 when the morning kids were leaving and the school bus loads (not joking) of afternoon camp kids hadn’t yet arrived. 

 Sweaty Jaclyn

We bought a one month membership (same price as a day pass) which gave Jac two hours of jump time rather than just one. We didn’t think she’d make it past an hour but she surprised us. 

We ended up leaving a little before her time was up. There were so many kids, and so little supervision (by camp staff or employees), that it was getting dangerous. Good thing she was tired and hungry so we got no complaints. 

We may go back again next week, unless she thinks of something she’d rather do. 

“I’m not sleeping…zzzzzz”

It’s great exercise!

Meet Ginger

I’ve been thinking about getting a second cat, someone for Coco to play with, and glancing thru cat cafe and cat rescue photos when they show up in FB/Insta posts. Not actively searching, rather waiting to see if the Universal Cat Distribution System had something in mind. (It’s a real phenomenon, g00gle it…)

Which is how I found Ginger. She’s exactly what I wanted - an adult (she’s 10), friendly, orange female (which is unusual, most orange cats are boys) who needed a new home (due to divorce in Ginger’s case.)

Not sure how much she weighs but I couldn’t lift her in her carrier. We’ll do a vet visit next month when she’s more comfy.

Jac and I went to meet her today and she’s sweet, shy and a big cuddle bug once she’s used to you. Ginger’s upstairs now, hiding under a bed - apparently it took her a week to come out from under there the last time her family moved. Once she’s comfortable with me, we’ll slowly introduce her to Princess Coco. They both have lived in multi-cat households so fingers crossed this goes smoothly. 

Zoo Do

We haven’t been to the Santa Barbara Zoo since the grandkids moved away (😭), 

so it was nice to visit and see the changes. 

We got there just before noon, as the fog was burning off and the temps rising. 

Axolotl selfie

I thought the animals would be asleep or hiding but a surprising number were active. 

Two of our favorite big cats weren’t visible. Tamar, the Amur Leopard, was cooling off behind the scenes according to a keeper and Kisa, the Snow Leopard, passed away last year. 

Lions Ralph and Felicia* ⬆️ were snoozing on their favorite rock, which just happens to be at eye level of the viewing window. 

 New Red Panda daddy (they had twins!); flamingo stance; Jac and the Hornbill (great band name!)

Highlight of the day for me was watching a keeper toss the gorillas their enrichment blocks from a high window, something we’d never seen before. 

Jac’s fav was watching the Island Fox walking up his hill in plain view, then lying down for a rest right in front of her. 

And also feeding Theo, the new dominant male (Michael also passed away recently😔) on the newly enhanced, very nice giraffe feeding platform. 

Jac has updated her list, so we have new exciting places to go in the 11 days we have remaining. Time is going much too fast!

* You know you’re a zoo regular when you know most of the animals by name…

Spoonbill Progress

I’ve been putting this one off since… February?? Mainly because it’s so big and I didn’t enjoy making the last giant one (loved it once it was done tho!)

There are only 2 birds remaining… and I really want to work on other projects… 

Knobby knees

and I was concerned about running out of big pieces of background fabric if I did the smaller owl first… 

 This is 4! separate pieces taped together. Awkward!

It’s not quite done - 6 multi-sheet pattern pieces remain to sew - but it’s getting there. I really love her face and knobby knees. 

 First time Coco has ‘helped’ me sew. That look says ‘pet me now’

Hoping to finish tomorrow if we survive taking after we take Jac to the zoo. 

List Clearing

Today Jac had a choice of the zoo or Chuck E Cheese. She chose the mouse (which worked out well as we needed to take my car for service nearby.)

We started with lunch at the mall, a visit to their play area - a favorite with all the grands over the years - and finally the mouse house. 

Jac wanted us have our picture taken together in one of the booths that then turned the photo into a drawing. 

I didn’t have high expectations but it turned out to be a treasure. 

Love both of these. 

Palette Cleanser

Hate to admit it, but I’m a tiny bit tired of foundation paper piecing. So for the 3 4-day holiday I decided to make something just for fun, with the idea it would be finished in those 4 days and I’d get back to FPP.*

It might have worked but Jac wanted to play games (she’s a Battleship star),

and build forts, and watch movies (Jac: “this is my favorite movie!” Me: “what happens in it?” Jac: “I don’t know. I’ve never actually watched it…” 🙄). 

Plus Coco has learned how to play and to communicate be the boss of me. She yowled, then patted her new toy until I got the idea and tuned it on for her. Now we do that every night when she gets the zoomies around 11:30. 

Which is a long way of saying I finished a new quilt, in one of my favorite patterns. Still debating whether to add borders… it’s 48x48” now, which seems a good size for a lap or wheelchair quilt. 

I still have a bunch of starched and ironed red, white and blue fabric. Rather than put it away I may make another of this wallhanging. It’s the only quilt I’ve made that I kinda regret giving away. It’ll be easy, right? It’s only 144 half-square triangles…

*I’ve signed up for another FPP block of the month, that started July 1, so I need the birds - and Christmas Wonderland and the embroidered bees - done asap.